They all say the mystery was solved when they were tested and treated for Lyme disease and now a group of Ontario mothers and kids have banded together to build awareness of the transmission of the disease from mother to child before birth.

Veterinarian Illana Stimers believes she contracted Lyme disease through a tick bite six years before her pregnancy and that she passed the disease on to her son Daniel.

Her case illustrates a challenge in modern medicine: Access to lifesaving treatments often depends on accidents of geography.

A spokesman for Biogen said via email that the company has been in communication with the family and “will provide them an update once there is a development on registration,” a first step in getting the drug approved for use in Iran. In January, Biogen said company representatives “were in Iran this month for meetings with the government and continue to work on registration.”

When a patient has a gene mutation – meaning a part of the DNA is missing or not functioning, as with Bishop and his CHM gene – gene therapy offers the possibility of correcting that by delivering healthy DNA-like material to replace what is missing.

It was the rejection, many years ago, of his grant application for a project investigating how gene therapy might treat conditions causing blindness.